We Found Independence With a Small Town Garbage Service

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They started with an old Chevy truck, but within a year Larry and Maureen Pace upgraded their small town garbage service to a vehicle more suitable for the purpose.
They started with an old Chevy truck, but within a year Larry and Maureen Pace upgraded their small town garbage service to a vehicle more suitable for the purpose.
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Larry and Maureen interact with another garbage aficionado.
Larry and Maureen interact with another garbage aficionado.

Three years ago my husband Larry, our two sons (then six and four), and I moved to a small town in central Nebraska with a clear idea of exactly what we were going to do once we got there: live a back-to-basics life while we supported ourselves by operating an established garbage service that we had made arrangements to take over.

Imagine our distress, then, when—with the family transplanted, winter setting in, and our bank account reading absolute zero—we learned the other party was calling off our business deal! To say that our life looked like a nightmare at that point would be a gross understatement.

Fortunately for us, however, Larry is no quitter. He’s a strong man with a head of curly red hair, a full red beard, and a mind that is just as filled with fiery determination. “Well,” he said, “if our first opportunity has flown the coop, another one is just as surely waiting for us to find it. As a matter of fact, I believe we’ll all be happier if we just buckle down and build our own garbage route from scratch by ourselves anyway.”

The next day, armed with a paper full of figures, my husband visited the local banker and persuaded him to loan us enough money ($800) to see our proposed new business through its first few months. Then, with the grubstake and an old Chevy farm truck that we borrowed from Larry’s parents, we set out to make that business a reality.

The Rules of Our Success

  • Published on Sep 1, 1978
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